The PI6CG182Q, PI6CG184Q, PI6CG188Q (PCIe 4.0 clock generators) and PI6CB184Q (PCIe 4.0 clock buffers) provide differential low-power, high-speed current steering logic (HCSL) outputs with on-chip termination. They have been designed to generate and distribute a reference clock signal for chipsets employing PCIe Gen 4 interfaces. These devices are all qualified to AEC-Q100 Grade 2, with an operating temperature range of -40°C to +105°C, therefore they are suitable for any automotive PCIe application.

Operating at 1.8V and with integrated on-chip termination at every HCSL output, the devices minimize power consumption and remove the need for external resistors; designers would otherwise need to add four resistors per output pair, or up to 32 resistors for an 8-output device, and lose power via the external resistors. Each output also features its own enable pin to further improve power management on outputs that are unused. The devices are based on Diodes Incorporated’s proprietary PLL technology, proven in millions of products worldwide. This design includes a number of advanced features including programmable output slew rate and amplitude, and selectable spread-spectrum on differential outputs to help minimize EMI. This can be particularly advantageous when designing for an automotive environment.

These automotive-compliant clocks were developed with the automotive manufacturing environment in mind, so wettable-flank QFN packages have been used to ensure compatibility with automated visual inspection.